Cheapest model 6.45-inch OLED iPhone slated to be iPhone X successor
Published : Wednesday, 21 March, 2018
Luke Lin, Digitimes Research’s senior analyst has been watching Apple’s supply chain closely and thinks he knows what iPhones’ next generation will look like. He has grouped them by screen type and size, although memory capacity will also have an impact.The iPhone X’s successor will retain the OLED display of approximately the same size (5.85 inch). Apple did, however, manage to reduce its bill of materials (BOM) by 10% from the current model. The OLED display makes up a big part of that.
This is why a 5.85 inch LCD model was being developed, although this has been suspended during the Lunar New Year and it may even be dropped altogether. It appears that Apple has managed to negotiate a price reduction to the extent that they can stay with OLED. To achieve this, Apple had to decrease the number of orders placed for Samsung Display, which put them in a sticky negotiating position.
Although it is similar to the iPhone X, Lin thinks a 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will be positioned in the middle, while the 5.85-inch OLED model will be the cheapest product. This prediction reflects the larger RAM capacity seen in recent prototypes when comparing them to OLED models.
Apple’s top-of-the-range product will also use a large OLED display – 6.45 inch. Apple will presumably still differentiate its iPhone models by using different camera setups, apart from the memory and screen, but the exact criteria is currently unknown.
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